Lhag-thong (Tibetan, to see more) or transcendent insight is beyond conceptualised thoughts. It is still a thought at a subtle single pointed level engaged at the sametime in investigative manner.One can gain knowledge and better understanding of the reality during such meditation. Well, one could gain extremely subtle pliancy of mind-body level that would have its own sensational impact but are supposed to be truly tranquil and balanced.Lhag-thong is a high level practice and it cannot be achieved with meditation alone, however it is achieved in mediation. It requires years of study under a highly qualified teacher with much reading and practice to achieve such an insight.Lhag-thong literally means to see "more", to see "beyond", "extraordinary", "highest", so, not to see just what a mass of mankind sees which live in ignorance, but to see beyond the limits which restrain a vision of developed minds, to see "with a third eye of Knowledge", which followers of tantric practices center on the forehead of their symbolic gods. Like any other skills, Lhag-thong can be nurtured and improved.Based on Lhag-Thong one can contemplate Nirvāṇa, Parinirvāṇa, what is between existence and non-existence, Śūnyatā, Pratītyasamutpāda, law which congregates causes and effects, understanding Karma and Vipāka etc. Ultimately Lhag-thong is a practice for realising Śūnyatā which creates a true enlightenment.

I have a question. Well, on Tibetan transcendent insight is called Lhag-thong and Tibetan Buddhism is based upon two vehicles: Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna. So my question is: How is transcendent insight called in Theravāda tradition, on Pali? (note that Lhag-thong on Tibetan stands for both transcendent insight and Vipassana).

Thank you for answering my question. But I think that the answers are incorrect because Vipassana is just insight meditation, while transcendent insight is something higher than just plain insight. With Vipassana one can gain insight and realize The Three Marks of Existence, but with Vipassana one cannot realize Sunyata or emptiness and thus cannot become enlightened, only with transcendent insight can one realize emptiness.

smokey wrote:Thank you for answering my question. But I think that the answers are incorrect because Vipassana is just insight meditation, while transcendent insight is something higher than just plain insight. With Vipassana one can gain insight and realize The Three Marks of Existence, but with Vipassana one cannot realize Sunyata or emptiness and thus cannot become enlightened, only with transcendent insight can one realize emptiness.

Vipassana is often used as a label for a meditation technique, but strictly it is insight to the way things are, and that is what leads to enlightenment.

Of course, Mahayana traditions have different ideas of what enlightenment is, so comparison is fraught with difficulty.

Vipassanā: 'insight', is the intuitive light flashing forth and exposing the truth of the impermanency, the suffering and the impersonal and unsubstantial nature of all material and mental phenomena of existence. It is insight-understanding vipassanā-paññā that is the decisive liberating factor in Buddhism, though it has to be developed along with the 2 other trainings in morality and concentration. The culmination of insight practice see: visuddhi VI leads directly to the stages of Nobility see: visuddhi VII.

Insight is not the result of a mere intellectual understanding, but is won through direct meditative observation of one's own bodily and mental processes. In the commentaries and the Vis.M, the sequene in developing insight-meditation is given as follows: 1. discernment of the material rūpa. of the mental nāma. contemplation of both nāma-rūpa i.e. of their pairwise occurrence in actual events, and their interdependence, 4. both viewed as conditioned application of the dependent origination, paticcasamuppāda 5. application of the 3 characteristics impermanency, etc. to mind-and-body-cum-conditions.

The stages of gradually growing insight are described in the 9 insight-knowledges vipassanā-ñāna constituting the 6th stage of purification: beginning with the 'knowledge of rise and fall' and ending with the 'adaptation to Truth'. For details, see visuddhi VI and Vis.M XXI.

Through these 18, the adverse ideas and views are overcome, for which reason this way of overcoming is called 'overcoming by the opposite' tadanga-pahāna overcoming this factor by that. Thus 1 dispels the idea of permanence. 2 the idea of happiness, 3 the idea of self, 4 lust, 5 greed, 6 origination, 7 grasping, 8 the idea of compactness, 9 kamma-accumulation, 10 the idea of lastingness, 11 the conditions, 12 delight, 13 adherence, 14 grasping and adherence to the idea of substance, 15 attachment and adherence, 17 thoughtlessness, 18 dispels entanglement and clinging.

Insight may be either mundane lokiya or supra-mundane lokuttara. supra-mundane insight is of 3 kinds: 1 joined with one of the 4 supra-mundane paths, 2 joined with one of the fruitions of these paths, 3 regarding the ceasing, or rather suspension, of consciousness see: nirodha-samāpatti.

smokey wrote:Thank you for answering my question. But I think that the answers are incorrect because Vipassana is just insight meditation, while transcendent insight is something higher than just plain insight. With Vipassana one can gain insight and realize The Three Marks of Existence, but with Vipassana one cannot realize Sunyata or emptiness and thus cannot become enlightened, only with transcendent insight can one realize emptiness.

Vipassana means insight, and in this case case I am not necessarily referring to the type of meditative practice that goes by the name vipassana.

while transcendent insight is something higher than just plain insight.

Says who?

With Vipassana one can gain insight and realize The Three Marks of Existence, but with Vipassana one cannot realize Sunyata or emptiness and thus cannot become enlightened, only with transcendent insight can one realize emptiness.

Again, says who? However Tibetan polemical stuff characterizes the supposed hinayana, it is not an accurate reflection of the teachings of the Theravada. Full insight, vipassana, into the three marks is awakening, full awakening into the fact that all dhammas are empty of any self-existent reality.

smokey wrote:With Vipassana one can gain insight and realize The Three Marks of Existence, but with Vipassana one cannot realize Sunyata or emptiness and thus cannot become enlightened, only with transcendent insight can one realize emptiness.

Further to Tilt's comment, I'd ask what you consider in "emptiness" to actually go beyond the three marks of existence? What aspect of sunnata cannot also be known or expressed by way of anatta and anicca (and dukkha too, but moreso the other two)?

I agree with the answers here. However I am interested in how one goes about doing Lag Thong. If anyone has any insight into the matter (ok pun intended) please let me know. I am always on the lookout for different insight/vipassana methods!